Acknowledging the pressure on universities to police and punish viewpoints critical of Israel, the letter offers legal guidelines to help schools respond.

It emphasizes that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has soundly rejected allegations that advocacy for Palestinian rights constitutes harassment of Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Emphasizing the university’s obligation to protect the free speech of its students and faculty, the letter states:

Debate, disagreement, and free expression, including protests, demonstrations, and other expressive activities, embody the highest values of a free university and a democratic society. We hope your university — through its policies, public statements, and actions — will treat freedom of speech not as a burden or a legal limitation, but rather, as a foundational value that enables searching scholarship and democratic governance.

In the coming weeks, the group of civil rights organizations will send a second batch of letters to dozens more universities where Students for Justice in Palestine chapters are active, and their speech rights are under threat.

Comments

It is high time that Palestinians had their say.For too long their free speech rights have been suppressed by monied interest in order to demonize their culture.They are human beings also and should be respected as such.